NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Bohdan Oblovatnyi, a 20-year-old student at the Taras Schevchenko National University of Kyiv, left Kyiv as Russia's attack on Ukraine escalated in March. He now lives with 30 other displaced Ukrainians in a school building used as a refugee hub in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. The facility doesn't have showers and the living conditions have become worse according to Oblovatyni. Rather than focusing on his own condition, he strives to help soldiers on the frontlines and volunteer for others.
“I didn’t want to just sit on the sofa and wait until the war ended,” Oblovatnyi said. “After two days of searches, a post on Facebook caught my eye. Our popular politician Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote on his page that Goncharenko centers are in search of volunteers. I joined the team.”
On Feb. 24, Russia launched attacks on Ukrainian Eastern territory, marking the biggest military operation in Europe since the end of World War II. Many Ukrainian cities have been bombed, destroying homes, displacing millions, and killing thousands. Over 7.1 million people have been internally displaced since the invasion of Ukraine, according to the second Ukraine Internal Displacement Report issued by the International Organization for Migration.
Several local organizations in Western Ukraine have started groups on Telegram to keep in touch with volunteers that are needed on a regular basis. Like many volunteers, Oblovatyni’s schedule is not set. His day depends on the number of deliveries and supplies received the day of. His main task is to deliver supplies by car, and by train.
“We do our best round a clock, each in his place, to protect our country and help our people,” Oblovatyni said.
More than 2500 civilians have been killed, including women and children according to The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. With the rapid increase of attacks, Ukrainians are doing everything they can to help one another.
“It's kind of routine when we are going to work, they're going to do the job and after that instead of going for a walk or playing football, we just go volunteering to help in some humanitarian points," Vitalii Yaremchuk, director of the educational center, Goncharenko Centre Chernivtsi, said. "So it's just a new reality.”
Yaremchuk has been working as a coordinator of two humanitarian aid points: one for soldiers on the frontline and another for those affected in hotspot regions including Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Symu, Balta, and Podilsk. He wakes up early each morning to compile a list of essential items that need to be delivered to displaced Ukrainians seeking shelter in his hometown, Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Working with over 60 local volunteers, Yaremchuk organizes and helps assign roles on a daily basis.
“We are just trying to get back to normal life as much as we can,” Yaremchuk said. “Normal life but still working on our victory. Still volunteering, still donating to armed forces, still donating to humanitarian points, and still paying taxes."
Local organizations request that people send funds to them rather than international ones. Columbia University students in New York shared multiple posts encouraging donations to locals. The Columbia students for Ukraine social media accounts shared a story on Instagram from Ada Wordsworth, co-founder of the KHARP project, a grassroots organization supporting communities on the Eastern borders of Ukraine, that calls on people to stop giving money to UNICEF, OXFAM, Save the Children, IHRC, etc. as she says “these groups are not here.”
“The presence of international charities on the ground is all but nonexistent. Unicef’s presence can be summed up in their empty tent on the border, taking up space and providing no real help,” Wordsworth said. “Much of the most urgent, challenging work is being carried out by grassroots, local organizations.”
More than 100,000 people have moved to Triniti as it’s located on the Ukraine Romanian border. Yaremchuk explained that Ukrainians work as one and like a machine. He believes that because of this, they will be victorious.
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